Store protesters lose legal battle

Ten protesters who occupied Fortnum & Mason during a demonstration against tax avoidance have lost an appeal against their conviction for aggravated trespass.

A sit-in organised by campaign group UK Uncut was held at the store in Piccadilly in March 2011.

A judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, who later conditionally discharged all but one of the ten, said the scene was “chaotic”.

Over nearly two-and-a-half hours, the group of 130, some of them masked, were shouting and screaming and using megaphones, drums, horns and bagpipes.

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